Book excerpt: To accomplish its mission of protecting about 9,000 fed. facilities, the Fed. Protective Service (FPS) currently has a budget of about $1 billion, about 1,200 full time employees, and about 13,000 contract security guards. This testimony discusses findings on: (1) the extent to which FPS ensures that its guards have the required training and certifications before being deployed to a fed. facility; (2) the extent to which FPS ensures that its guards comply with their assigned responsibilities (post orders) once they are deployed at fed. facilities; and (3) security vulnerabilities recently identified related to FPS's guard program. To address these objectives, the auditor conducted site visits at 6 of FPS's 11 regions, and interviewed numerous FPS officials. Illustrations.